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EU agrees to re-start talks with Turkey

The European Union’s member states have agreed to resume accession talks with Turkey, after a gap of three years. However, in a sign of concerns raised by the Turkish government’s crackdown on protestors in recent weeks, member states have delayed the official launch of the talks.

Turkish diplomats and the European Union had for the past few months been working towards an official resumption of talks at an inter-governmental conference on 26 June.

Those plans were, however, thrown into disarray by deaths and injuries caused by the Turkish police’s response to demonstrations against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Criticisms by European national leaders and the EU’s institutions resulted in sharp responses from Turkey, including accusations by Erdoğan that the EU is guilty of double standards.

No accession talks have taken place between the EU and Turkey since June 2010, but the re-launch of talks became possible in February, when France lifted its opposition to the opening of negotiations on Turkey’s adoption of EU legislation related to regional development.

In the weeks since the protests began on 28 May, France has called on the Turkish authorities to exercise restraint, but has avoided explicitly linking the re-start of talks with developments within Turkey.

Germany, by contrast, has said that this would not be the right time for talks to begin, leading to a flurry of diplomatic activity between Ankara and Berlin in the past week.

The compromise, reached today at a meeting of Europe ministers, saw member states affirm their intention to allow talks to begin on regional-development legislation – chapter 22 of the accession negotiations. However, member states are legally required to hold an inter-governmental conference before a chapter of accession talks is held. The conference has been postponed until the autumn, until after the release of the European Commission’s annual report on Turkey’s progress towards meeting commitments that it has made to the EU. The report is usually issued in October. After the report, the EU’s member states would confirm their support for an inter-governmental conference.

Eamon Gilmore, the foreign minister of Ireland, which currently holds the presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, said: “While we have been disturbed by the reaction to the recent peaceful protests in Turkey, I believe that the EU accession process is most effective tool we have in influencing the reform agenda in Turkey.”

The Turkish government had said that it would react negatively to any delay to talks, while the largest Turkish opposition party – the Republican People’s Party – has urged the EU to press ahead with talks.